Think of how you could dissolve grease in gasoline, and what would be left behind if all the gasoline then evaporated.

In refineries, the gooey residue that remains after extraction of gasoline and other products is mixed with sand and then mixed with lighter oil and heated up to make it flexible enough to pave roads.

At a deep-sea asphalt volcano, the material is squeezed out in huge ropey masses that bend and flow.

The massive massive rocks splayed out over the seabed in the shape of an enormous flower, with a mystery black substance leaking out of them.

In the cold seawater, the remaining volatiles dissolve and the extrusions shrink in volume.

At some critical point, the asphalt cannot flow anymore.

Cracks and fractures form.

This process would explain the basics of what the NOAA explorers discovered today.

A massive plug was squeezed out at the seafloor. It then split into separate extensions that continued to flow until they became brittle and cracked apart.

Once the petals of the giant lily were in place, animals that like hard surfaces had a new home.

The presence of chemosynthetic tube worms at the site led scientists to believe that there was more to this site than what we could see, and the team now hopes to return tot he area

People following the dive saw beautiful video of corals, barnacles, anemones, and fish. Bacteria that can utilize the oil as food generated a sulfur-based food chain for chemosynthetic tube worms and mats of other sulfur oxidizing bacteria.

Although the asphalt volcano appears to be dormant for the moment, the size of the extrusions suggests that there may be more asphalt below that might get squeezed out in the future.